Mint Sauce.

Steve059

We used the last of the mint sauce last night, so I found myself comparing ASDA SmartPrice and Tesco Everyday Value mint sauce.

Both are 24p for 165g. So I had look at the list of ingredients, on the old jar of ASDA stuff and the Tesco website, to see if there was any difference.

What I found was surprising. The ASDA stuff has just 2.5% mint. The Tesco stuff has 29%.

I even checked the ASDA stuff's label with my magnifying glass (which is one of my more useful kitchen tools, as I get older): there is a decimal point. Also, mint is well down the list of ingredients, which have to be in descending order. On the Tesco stuff's list, mint is second, behind water.

No guesses where I'm getting the new jar.

It just shows just how different seemingly similar products can be.

shop-to-drop

It does look like an error. I have a jar of tesco value and colmans mint sauce in the fridge and have just checked and they are indeed 29% and 25% mint.

Can't see whatelse would be in the Asda one if only 2.5% mint?

andrewmp

Funnily enough I just got some tesco value mint sauce. Noticed it was loads thicker than the asda version.

geordie_joe

shop-to-drop wrote: »

It does look like an error. I have a jar of tesco value and colmans mint sauce in the fridge and have just checked and they are indeed 29% and 25% mint.

I bet it's not an error as the "chosen by you" version, which cost £1 has only 5% dried mint.

shop-to-drop wrote: »

Can't see whatelse would be in the Asda one if only 2.5% mint?

Water and vinegar. Obviously the more mint you add the better the flavour.

It's just another case of adding more of the cheaper ingredients and less of the expensive ones. I know mint isn't expensive, but compared to the price of water and value vinegar it is.

anotheruser

I am surprised.
I will look next time I am in Tesco as we buy the Asda SP mint sauce quite a lot.

Steve059

For information, the web page for the Tesco EV product is ...

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=250647514

The Tesco product's ingredients list is Water, Reconstituted Mint (29%), Sugar, Acidity Regulator (Acetic Acid), Salt, Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum), Flavouring, Sweetener (Saccharin), Colour (Copper Chlorophyllin Complex).

The web page for the ASDA product doesn't have an ingredient list.

The list on the label is Water, Glucose Fructose Syrup, Acidity Regulator (Acetic Acid), Dried Mint (2.5%), Sugar, Salt, Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum), Flavouring, Sweetener (Sodium Saccharin).

IMHO, the ASDA stuff tasted OK. I can't wait to sample the Tesco one.

meg72

I think the difference maybe that Tesco one states reconstituted mint which will have had water added and the asda one states dried mint,

geordie_joe

meg72 wrote: »

I think the difference maybe that Tesco one states reconstituted mint which will have had water added and the asda one states dried mint,

That's the same thing. Tesco put dried mint into the jar, which contains water so the mint becomes reconstituted, and that's what they call it.

Asda do exactly the same thing but call it dried mint, as that's what it was when they put it into the jar.

penrhyn

Make your own its far nicer.
Grow some in a large pot.

Pick, chop, little vinegar hot water and sugar........lovely.

browneyedbazzi

geordie_joe wrote: »

That's the same thing. Tesco put dried mint into the jar, which contains water so the mint becomes reconstituted, and that's what they call it.

Asda do exactly the same thing but call it dried mint, as that's what it was when they put it into the jar.

It isn't the same thing though - one is measuring/declaring the amount of concentrated ingredient in the product and the other is measuring/declaring the amount of the reconstituted ingredient in the product.

So asda put in 2.5 grams of dried mint into the 100g jar then tops it up with other ingredients and label their jar as 2.5% mint

Tesco put in 29 grams of reconstituted mint into the jar (we don't know what proportion of the 29 grams is dried/concentrated mint and what is water) then top it up with other ingredients and label the jar as 29% reconstituted mint.

RHYSDAD

penrhyn wrote: »

Make your own its far nicer.
Grow some in a large pot.

Pick, chop, little vinegar hot water and sugar........lovely.

Just to back this post up look at all the other c rap they put in it as well.....